Art of a dale

The trees, lanes and green pastures of Wensleydale have inspired Yorkshire artist Simon Palmer for 40 years. Susie White talks to the water-colourist about his spiritual connection with the landscape

- Susie White

The landscape of Lower Wensleydale is one of narrow lanes that swoop and curve following the swell of the land. Bordered by drystone walls and fences, they cross rivers on old stone bridges or undulate between flail-cut hedges and ivy-covered trees. Close by are the moors, where curlews cry and sandy tracks lead among the heather. This is the landscape that has inspired the work of Simon Palmer, one of Britain's leading watercolour artists.

Simon has lived in a village near Masham for 30 years. He was born in Yorkshire in 1956, his dad a railwayman, but the family moved to south London when he was eight months old. Somehow though, Yorkshire was always in his blood.

"When you're growing up, you don't realise how alien you can feel to an area," he says. "I was depressed and claustrophobic in London. Then I went to Reigate Art School to do a Graphic Design and Illustration course. An important moment was when the tutor encouraged me to go out into the countryside and draw."

While staying with friends in a cottage in Lastingham in 1976, Simon fell in love with the landscape of North Yorkshire. His etchings were selling well and he was able to move up north, where he tried living in different valleys, including Teesdale in Durham, which he found beautiful but bleak. At last, he discovered this corner of Wensleydale. He says that when he saw his current home in the village, set in its agricultural, slightly domestic landscape, he thought "This is it!" And it was there that he met his wife Tink, who lived in a nearby village.

LIFELONG CALLING